Evolve 23 Minute Gameplay Video Features The Kraken

Nearly half an hour's worth of gameplay footage has been unveiled for Turtle Rock Studios and 2K Games' upcoming first-person, asymmetrical mutliplayer, competitive, monster-simulator shooting game. The footage showcases one of the more legendary monsters that players will be able to fight against... the Kraken.

The video footage was spotted by Gvmers and the gameplay itself comes courtesy of legendary YouTuber, Jack Frags. Given his illustrious position on YouTube it's not unlikely that – despite having the game under a very tight NDA during the closed alpha test – he's still able to post up gameplay footage of Evolve. This is not uncommon as Frags has been on the receiving end of tons of exclusive footage from new and unreleased games; just so long as the footage doesn't focus on glitches, bugs and gameplay-breaking mechanics.

There are some neat gameplay mechanics at work in the title, as four players donning the role of hunters will have to hunt down a fifth player who controls a monster. The objective of the hunters is to kill the monster. The objective of the monster is to either kill the players or attack a generator after reaching level 3.

Hunters can track the monster's movement when it leaves footprints on the ground. The monster has to eat to nourish its growth and level up its abilities. The monster gets three levels of upgrades and it can only upgrade by eating trash mobs or creeps that litter the playing field. In this way, the game has an almost MOBA feel to it, as the monster-character has to carry out sneak attacks at lower levels and bide time until it grows stronger.

In this particular video, the Kraken has the ability to scale around on both ground and in the air. It looks a heck of a lot like a Cthulhu monster, which only adds to the appeal. Jack was playing the Kraken with a lot of skill, but the hunters weren't pushovers at all.

After evolving to the third form, Jack decides to go on the offensive a few times, but the teamwork from the hunters was just too strong. Trappers can use harpoons and energy shields to keep anything in (or out) of the dome, where-as the assault is the heavy weapons expert with various kinds of DOTs to dish out, the support uses turrets, pets and other similar gadgets to literally support the team, and the medic keeps everyone alive. The medic in this case was the most important class of the group, as he kept everyone alive, and Jack on his toes.

Players have two states of death, a knockdown once all their life is gone and a more permanent death if the monster can kill them while they're knocked down. Only the medic can revive a character who has been “perma” killed. However, there's also a countdown timer where a dropship will come in to revive fallen players. So long as one team member is left alive, the dropship is capable of coming in to offer revives.

So far, the game looks like it has a really good balance between the monster and the hunters. There's also supposedly going to be eight playable hunters across the four aforementioned classes.

One of my biggest worries was with procedural damage on the monsters – thankfully Turtle Rock already had the issue addressed and we can visibly see some forms of damage on the progressively weakened Kraken. Nice call.

Evolve is set for release on October 21st for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Need more info? Feel free to visit the official website.